New Goals

Right now I am quite happy I did not write the standard January blog post about my goals for the year. It would have been quickly completely out of date. I can not claim any foresight - the delay is because I was waiting for the last vestiges of my old life to end at the start of April (when I left Substantive Research). I have spent some time over the last few weeks thinking about what I want to do next, and so now is the time to set some goals for the last 8 months of the year.

Get my strength back the start-of-year peak before the end of the year This one is largely dependent on being able to get back to the gym, something that will hopefully be possible here in Australia in a month or so. At the start of the year, I set a bunch of personal bests at the gym, at the end of a 5 month plan. Since then I have gone backwards. It would be great if I can just get back to that level by the end of the year. I plan to write more about this in a separate blog post.

Be able to run 5km in 20min Since all the gyms shut 5 weeks ago I have taken up running again. At the moment I can do 5km in 25min, which is a good start for me. I think it is possible, but definitely a challenge, to drop 5 minutes. Historically, staying uninjured will be the hardest part of this goal.

Complete 3 game prototypes and maybe a full project Now that I am unemployed, I have rebranded myself as self-employed. Once again unto the indie gamedev breach. A “how is this done again?” prototype is in progress. The plan is to finish it within weeks, although I am starting slow. After that I will continue with more prototypes taking only a month or two or work each until I settle on a what seems to be a worthwhile larger project (taking 6 months to a year). There will be more said about this in the near future.

12 blog articles and regular social media posts While working for SR in London and during the just finished transitional phase, this blog and other social media was largely ignored. I aim to slowly reverse that, with the unambitious goal of 12 more posts here before the end of the year. I will also look to reactivate various other social media accounts, although mainly towards the purposes of promoting my gamedev work.

Maintain other activities A lesson learnt from the last time I was working on my own projects is not to become overly focused on one project. So this goal is just to remind me to do other things. Go out occasionally, read books, play games, whatever. Learning Spanish would fit in here too, although I’m not sure if I will start again, it would be nice, but I’m not sure it would be worth the time.